Introduction to the Journals

While supervising the recording and copying of his
revelations at his residence in Hiram, Ohio, in 1832, Joseph Smith ventured into a new
genre. He dictated to his clerk a brief journal entry, which the
clerk recorded in a volume that was being used to record
revelations. Dated 8 March 1832,
the passage reads: “Chose this day and ordained brother Jesse Gause and Broth[er] Sidney
[Rigdon] to be my councellers of the ministry of the
presidency of th[e] high Pristhood and from the 16th of
February up to this date have been at home except a
journey to Kirtland on the
29 Feby
and returned home one [on] the 4th of
March we received a revelation in Kirtland and one since
I returned home blessed be the name of the Lord.”1 More than eight months elapsed without
any further recording of that nature. On 27 November 1832, Smith’s first journal was purchased,
and he began it by stating his intention “to keep a minute acount of
all things that come under my obsevation.”2 Although
useful records resulted, the reality seldom approached this ideal.
Many early entries were brief, and there were gaps within journals
and between journals. In the 1830s, only for the six months preceding the dedication of
the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio, in March
1836 and for part of 1838
were entries relatively sustained and detailed. Diary keeping
improved in the 1840s, owing
mainly to the diligence and longevity in the task of Willard Richards, who began writing
for Joseph Smith in December 1841.
And then, on 22 June 1844,
Smith’s tenth and final journal volume came to an abrupt halt. This
volume, kept almost daily by Richards, suddenly ceased amid the
mounting trouble that led to Smith being killed within the week.

As with Smith’s record
keeping in general, his journal-keeping methods developed over time.
Before he and his scribes developed a consistent, workable
procedure, their efforts, intentionally or not, echoed several
genres. The first six journals each bear a title—Book for Record,
Sketch Book, Scriptory Book, Memorandum, and Minute Book (all
constituting the present first volume of The Joseph Smith
Papers, Journals series), and Book of the Law of the
Lord (the title of the book containing the first journal presented
in volume two of the Journals series). These titles, in the end,
reflect something of the varied contents and purposes of these
journals. The Scriptory Book, for example, contains various written
records, or scripts—letters, minutes, revelations, and other
transcribed documents—as well as typical journal entries recording
daily events. Combining miscellaneous documents with proper journal
entries, the book functioned as a repository for information Smith
and his scribes wanted to preserve.

Similarly, the record titled “Memorandum” seems to have
been intended as a record different from a typical journal. Kept by
scribe James Mulholland, the document
appears on first inspection to be an example of inept journal
keeping. Mulholland’s terse entries—“At home all day”; “Saw him
early morning”3—record almost nothing of
interest. But a memorandum, in the 1830s as today, is defined as a
written reminder or a note of a transaction, a purpose that
Mulholland’s journal fulfilled. Mulholland apparently began the
journal just after Joseph Smith met with legal counsel
as difficulties mounted in Missouri—counsel may have recommended that Smith keep a
record to verify his whereabouts each day. If we take the title of
Mulholland’s document at face value, his record accomplishes what we
may infer Smith requested.

Early on in the sixth of these variously titled
journals, the diary keeping settled into a more predictable pattern.
By this time, Joseph Smith had a regular cadre of
scribes with better-defined procedures for keeping journals, copying
letters, and writing his history. Preeminent among them was Willard Richards, who also inscribed
portions of the 1839–1843
letterbook and Nauvoo municipal records and took a leading
role in the creation of Smith’s history both before and after
Smith’s death. Although from December
1841 forward Richards inscribed significant parts of the
sixth Joseph Smith journal, by 1843
he was Smith’s consistent journal keeper. In December 1842, when he began the first
of four matching journal volumes, he took an approach that served
him well until the end. The four volumes he kept, each of which he
titled “President Joseph Smith’s Journal,” were one endeavor applied
consistently over time.

One benefit to come from Joseph Smith’s practice of
delegating journal keeping to others is the substantial number of
sermons reported in the journals. Smith evidently did not speak from
written texts; no such texts survive. An 1830 revelation promised that God would give him “in the
very moment” what to say,4 and Smith
relied on that promise. According to a scribe’s report, Smith told
an audience in 1843 that “his mind was
continually ocupied with the business of the day. and he had to
depend entirely upon the living God for every thing he said on such
occasions.”5 Thus his
words to his followers are accessible only through notes kept by
others. The four journal volumes written by Willard Richards during the last
eighteen months of Smith’s life record fifty-nine discourses,
twenty-five in substantial detail.

Throughout all Joseph Smith’s
journals, readers must differentiate between first-person material
referring to him and that referring to his scribes. For convenience
and brevity, scribes often followed the convention of writing with
Joseph Smith as an implied first person. For example, in April 1834, Oliver Cowdery wrote in Smith’s journal: “left Kirtland. . . . Travelled to W. W. Williams’ . . .
took dinner, after which we travelled on.”6 In the
first part of this entry, readers must supply Smith as the subject
who “left,” “Travelled,” and “took dinner.” Later in the entry,
however, Cowdery himself joins in as part of the “we” who “travelled
on.”

In other cases, assuming Joseph Smith to be the subject
creates errors. For example, the documentary History of the
Church, a work first published serially in church
periodicals in the nineteenth century and available since the early
twentieth century in six volumes (a seventh volume covers the early
administration of Smith’s successor, Brigham Young), says that Smith traveled from Commerce to Quincy, Illinois, and back between 14 and 19 May
1839.7 This
is based on a seemingly clear first-person journal entry: “I
returned to Quincy so kept no Minute of course, I got
back here Sunday ev[en]ing the 19th
May.”8 However, other documentary
evidence establishes that the “I” in this entry is scribe James Mulholland, who made the entry
to explain not having recorded Smith’s activities during that
week.

The Journals series clarifies other misconceptions
stemming from the familiar History of the Church.
While Joseph Smith’s journals were used
as the foundation for much of the day-by-day chronological text of
the History, the early editors and compilers of the
History inserted a wide variety of other
materials into the narrative and then presented the entire work as a
seamless first-person account by Smith. The present edition of
Smith’s journals presents the complete text of the original
manuscripts without any of the other material inserted in the
History, allowing readers to distinguish Smith’s
journals from other documents.

Through the diverse material in Joseph Smith’s journals, readers
may follow him on his pursuit of an overarching goal—to “establish
Zion” among his people. While the journals fall short of his
original intent of providing a “minute acount of all things that
come under my obsevation,” they do contain over 1,500 pages of
material recording his challenges and efforts toward building what
he saw as the beginnings of the kingdom of God on earth.